Everybody knows about the famous frontman playing saxophones and telling jokes at the Supertramp concerts... But who is John, the real John ?

John Anthony Helliwell was born into a musical family in the Yorkshire town of Todmorden on the 15 th February 1945 just 4 months after another musically famous Todmordarian, Keith Emerson, of Emerson, Lake and Palmer fame.

Exposure to music in the Helliwell home was virtually instantaneous. Family members were involved in every type of music from church to local Gilbert and Sullivan productions. John’s parents duly ensured that their young lad received the usual childhood piano and recorder lessons but none of these musical stimuli proved very inspirational to him and it was left to the jazz record collection of a family friend to prompt our small hero to start his quest for a clarinet...